"Wounds my heart with a monotonous languor"

Rating: 8/10 (12 February 2003)

June 6th,1944. The Allied invasion of northern Europe begins along the Normandy coastline. In the early hours of the morning thousands of British and American paratroopers are dropped inland to secure strategic objectives, to be followed at dawn by the main assault force consisting of Americans (Utah and Omaha beaches), British (Gold and Sword beaches), Canadians (Juno beach) and French (attached to the British at Sword). By nightfall it is hoped that the troops will be moving off the beaches and linking up with the Airborne forces inland.
This multi-faceted account of the D-Day landings was a mammoth undertaking in its day. Adapted for the screen by Cornelius Ryan from his book of the same name, it is a very detailed look at the events of that momentous day in history. Every angle is covered, from the commanders, planners and soldiers to the French underground, civilians and the German defenders. The cast list reads like a who's who of international cinema at the time, to the point where this can detract from the drama of the events at times. Nevertheless, the sheer scale of the production is staggering in its scope, most of it filmed on the actual battle sites where possible. In terms of cost, this would surely be impossible to film these days.
There are a couple of drawbacks, however. Some of the dialogue leans toward the corny at times, especially by todays standards. Also, since the release of 'Saving Private Ryan' and 'Band Of Brothers' the landings on Omaha beach and the parachute drop sequences look tame and rather antiseptic. This isn't a criticism of the production, so much as a comment on how the film is starting to show its age.
On the plus side there are some very well executed sequences. The scaling of the cliffs at Point du Hoc by the US Rangers is one, and the storming of the town of Ouistreham by French commandos is another. This is probably the most breathtaking scene in the entire film, as an airborne camera tracks the commandos through the streets and ends up circling a German machine gun nest on top of the casino building.
The film needs to be viewed in its original widescreen aspect ratio to fully appreciate its epic scale. The DVD print is a beautifully clean transfer in the original black & white. I, and I suspect many others, got quite a shock a couple of years back when I tuned in to watch it on TV, to find it has been digitally colourised. In truth this version looks quite good, but it's not available on DVD.
Despite showing its age a little, 'The Longest Day' remains one of the great World War Two films, and is still the definitive cinematic account of D-Day.